I couldn't find a contact button on your blog so i'll post this as a comment.

As someone who's trying to make the switch from digital to traditional painting techniques, I found these great videos just gone up on You Tube a couple of weeks ago on the subject of background painting (Samurai Jack style).

Thought they might be of interest to your blog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVuNZiYSqrA&feature=related

That's the first 'demo' or 'part' - there's 3 in total if you check the related video links.

"Are there any techniques for extracting a colour palette from say a screencap of a movie/cartoon and then inking in photoshop or something using those colours?"

Certainly. I don't know if you're looking to have it create an actual selection of colors pallete to replace the standard one, which might be more involved, but you could just bring the image into Photoshop and add it as a layer to the image you're working on. Then just use the eyedropper on each color you want to use, go back to your image and paint it in.

oh man why can't they give you the cash to make the yogi bear show in the old format(from week to week only yogi would always be in the show, and for the other cartoons maybe sometimes any other HB classic cartoon like quick draw mcgraw, huckleberry hound, or anything H&B.. i'd love to see a john k blue falcon cartoon) (and probably it would cost just a fraction of what they're going to spend on advertising the new 3d CG yogi bear movie)